PSPCL planning for NO tariff hike in election year
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
In this last year of the populist government in Punjab, Punjab state power corporation limited is going to give a good shock and a bad shock to its consumers. The elections are due in Punjab in February 2022
As per the available information, the good shock is that, the powercom is going to write to its regulatory body-Punjab state electricity regulatory commission (PSERC) to not to increase the power tariff from the next financial year-2021-22. This move of the Punjab state power corporation limited is to appease the Punjab state consumers, in the election year. The elections are due in early next year.
The bad shock is the powercom is also informing the Punjab state electricity regulatory commission (PSERC), that they will recover the shortfall of 2021-22, Rs 9807 crores, from the next years coming years 2022-23 onwards. Ultimately the consumer will have to pay the double power hike from 2022-23. The powercom is fail to meet total revenue requirement for FY 2021-22, including past revenue gaps.
As per the available information, PSPCL in its petition has submitted True-Up-for FY 2019-20 and annual performance review (APR) for FY 2020-21. PSPCL has computed the cumulative Revenue gap at existing tariff for FY 2021-22 –
| PARTICULARS | FY 2021-21 |
| Net aggregate revenue requirement | 37,653 crores |
| Less: Revenue from existing Tariff | 34,304 crores |
| Revenue (Gap) / Surplus for the year | 3,349 crores |
| Add: Revenue (Gap)/ Surplus of previous years | 6,658 crores |
| Revenue (Gap)/ Surplus upto the year | 9,807 crores |
The powercom has also informed the regulatory commission that it fails to recover, under recover the additional surcharge of Rs 125.07 crores for Apr 2020-21.
Earlier, in December 2020 Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) in its annual revenue requirement (ARR) petition filed before the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), the powercom has sought increase in power tariff hike for the next fiscal.
When contacted the PSPCL CMD, A Venu Prasad, he said “the govt has written to the regulatory, for no power hike. It’s the discretion of the regulatory body to accept the proposal of the powercom or not.”
February 27,2021
